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As founder, chairman and chief executive of National Research Group Inc. from 1978 to 2003, movie market researcher Joseph Farrell introduced the concept of market testing to Hollywood, originating now-standard industry practices such as audience tracking surveys, focus-group preview screenings and demographic analysis of moviegoers. Over the decades, NRG's confidential research reports were used by all of the major Hollywood studios to make decisions about release dates, tweak marketing campaigns and — sometimes to the unease of filmmakers — tinker with movies. Farrell, who became a film producer after leaving the National Research Group, died Wednesday of natural causes...

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As founder, chairman and chief executive of National Research Group Inc. from 1978 to 2003, movie market researcher Joseph Farrell introduced the concept of market testing to Hollywood, originating now-standard industry practices such as audience tracking...

A man has a casual affair with a woman and then dumps her. The woman, now with child, longs for his return but is coldly rebuffed. Humiliated and left with nothing to live for, she kills herself with a sharp blade to the throat.
The story of Puccini's...

The Beverly Hills International Film Festival begins Wednesday at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater with the U.S. premiere of “The Black Tulip,” a drama from Afghanistan. Other Beverly Hills International Film Festival selections will screen at the Clarity Theatre.

The documentary category is where Hollywood wears its conscience on its sleeve, and this Oscar season's nominees have the politically engaged members of the industry buzzing more than usual over the range and variety of topics.
Partly, that's because the...